“We’re not just talking about how customers are using AI, we’re using it internally to make the partner experience better,” said Google Cloud Vice President Colleen Kapase, regarding new AI capabilities specifically built for channel partners.
Fresh off unveiling a slew of new AI innovation at Google Cloud Next, the $48 billion cloud giant has launched some new channel-specific AI tools aimed at driving partner profitability, including a new support AI agent and Earnings Hub capabilities.
“We’re not just talking about how customers are using AI, we’re using it internally to make the partner experience better,” Colleen Kapase, vice president of channels and partner programs at Google Cloud, tells CRN. “We’re using AI to help partners increase their profitability.”
Google Cloud’s new support AI agent was built specifically for Google partners to field various questions around incentives, partner tier levels and training, as well as the ability to quickly approve statements of work.
“We’re using it in our incentive programs to now approve statements of work to get partners the development funds or the professional services funds they need,” said Kapase (pictured above). “It’s on 24 hours a day.”
For example, the new AI support agent can “look at the partners’ statements of work, look at their form and say, ‘You’ve got everything answered’—then boom, they get a response time almost instantaneously,” she said.
[Related: Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian On Agentic AI’s Starring Role]
Google Cloud’s channel leader said the support agent shows how each individual partner can get to a higher tier in its partner programs or what training they need to achieve certain certification levels.
“That’s all being handled now through agents and that knowledge base, so it’s allowing us to answer a lot more partners’ specific questions to get them exactly the answer they want fast and in real time,” said Kapase. “Also, frankly, increasing the level of support and reducing the amount of time it takes to get to them an answer.”
New Google Cloud Earnings Hub Innovation
Google Cloud’s Earnings Hub tracks partner incentives, growth and benchmarks partner performances against their channel peers.
Partners can now leverage new AI-powered insights inside Earnings Hub to provide data such as customer consumption patterns or where a specific partner should be focused on.
“We’re using AI to tell partners things like, ‘When is consumption dropping for their particular customers? Is there a services opportunity where they should be leaning in? Are they not using an incentive program? Do they leave money on the table?’” said Kapase. “It gives partners a natural, native language where they can ask the questions that they want through the Earnings Hub about our different incentives.”
Additionally, the revamped Earnings Hub will also provide partners with something similar to a report card.
“You can use the AI insights to tell you thinks like, ‘How am I doing against my peers? Am I in the 50th percentile of earnings through the incentives?’ It gives partners a sense of, ‘Am I at the top of my game?’” said Kapase. “It’s a great way for leadership to see how their operational folks are doing and engaging with our incentives.”
AI Inside Google’s Delivery Navigator
The Mountain View, Calif.-based cloud computing superstar has also recently injected AI into its partner Delivery Navigator tool.
“That’s helping the partners come into the tool and have a very specific question like, ‘I am trying to do an Oracle migration for these particular applications,’—then ‘bam’—it will bring the partner right to that content. Then they can ask, ‘I specifically want to do a statement of work for a customer of this size.’ The AI Delivery Navigator tool will help them put that together as well,” said Kapase.
“So it’s helping them on the professional services side of the house too,” she added.
Google Cloud partner Promevo is excited to use the new AI technology for partners to help drive AI sales and customer sickness in 2025.
“We’re very bullish right now on the changes they’re making for partners and the AI they’re enabling for us,” said Promevo Chief Technology Officer John Pettit. “It’s helping us continually find ways to bring Google technology out there to the enterprises.”
Pettit was impressed by the slew of new AI innovation unveiled at Google Cloud Next 2025 last week in Las Vegas, such as Agentspace, agentic AI and new AI Agent Marketplace.
Google Cloud launched a new AI Agent Marketplace last week where customers can browse, purchase, and manage AI agents built by channel partners.
“They are going to probably step towards leadership in this space as we look at the rest of this year, and especially when they’re investing in things like agent development protocols,” Pettit said. “We expect to see some huge growth from AI from Google this year.”
Kapase, for her part, touted Google Cloud’s recent commitment to invest a whopping $75 billion in AI alone in 2025.
“We’re using AI internally to make our partner experience better,” she said. “Our big message for partners is, you need to upscale all of your resources on AI.”
